


Unfinished

by halfpastmonsoon



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alcohol, Canonical Character Death, Dialogue Heavy, Dreams vs. Reality, Feelings, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-27 03:03:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20400616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfpastmonsoon/pseuds/halfpastmonsoon
Summary: Hinata meets someone who understands him better than he thought possible.If only she weren't dead.





	Unfinished

Hinata Hajime appeared to be dreaming. He wasn't particularly surprised by that. Ever since he got out of the simulation, his grip on reality was flimsy at best, and he often resorted to escapism. He still hadn't quite found himself again after the project, and the program.

In any case, dream or not, he found himself in a bar. That much was certain. It was almost empty – save for an exceptionally blurry young woman leaning over him, saying something he couldn't quite make out. He squinted and tried desprately to focus despite his disoriented state.

'Jeez, you can't just lie on the floor all night. Are you drunk already?'

Her voice was nice. It was husky and oddly warm, in sharp contrast with her words. Hinata sat up on the floor, rubbing his head. He didn't feel drunk, but he did feel exhausted. Heavy.

'You sound like Koizumi,' he muttered. He didn't expect her to hear him, but she giggled, helping him up. She must have had amazing hearing.

'Please tell me you're not going to mope around. You're not the only one who has problems. Let's sit down and talk. But not on the floor!' she added, watching him carefully.

He was about to protest, but stopped himself. Dream or not dream, maybe talking could help him work through things. The other surviors weren't so eager to discuss trauma. They hadn't quite recovered from theirs, after all. Maybe a fresh pair of ears was what he needed.

She was already at the bar. He noticed that she was holding a pink drink and looking back at him with a welcoming smile. He joined her immediately, as if he couldn't resist.

'You're a quiet one. Don't tell me you're scared of me,' she teased, taking a sip of her drink.

That was the first time he got a proper look at her. She had shoulder-length light blonde hair, styled in the front with pins in the shape of musical notes. Much like him, she also had an ahoge – a strand of hair sticking up in a funny way. Bold, sober, purple eyes looked at him, a pair of light eyebrows raised above them. Her cheeks, he noticed, were flushed and covered in freckles. She was wearing a light purple vest and a magenta skirt.

It was difficult to gauge her age, but she must have been at least 20, if the drink in her hand was anything to go by. In which case she might have been just barely younger than him.

'I'm not scared of you,' he assured, knitting his eyebrows. 'I'm just disoriented. Who are you, anyway?' he was still as blunt as ever. It was hard to trust smiling strangers fully.

She smiled, relieved. 'That's better. I'm Akamatsu Kaede! Pleasure to meet you...?'

'Hinata Hajme.' It felt good to introduce himself under that name again, if nothing else. She didn't need to know about Kamukura Izuru, and that was more than fine by him. 'Thanks for waking me up. How long have I been out for?' he asked, despiite his better judgement. Would asking about that make the dream end?

Akamatsu puffed out her cheeks and shrugged. 'Hey, don't try to distract me,' she then said, poking him in the chest. 'I can tell that something's bothering you. You seem totally out of it. I want to hear all about it, you hear?' It was hard to tell if she was trying to help or just satisfy her curiosity.

Hinata groaned. 'You could say so, but it's a long story. I'm not sure you would understand it.'

Akamatsu eyed him keenly and handed him a glass of some unindentified beverage, which he accepted automatically. 'Maybe I would. You're a killing game survivor, right?'

Hinata's jaw dropped. He put it back up with his hand before uttering: 'Yeah, but how did you know?' This woman was starting to scare him a bit. Similarly to Koizumi, she was quick to take over the conversation. Unlike Koizumi, she seemed to know too much about him.

'I guessed,' she admitted, giving him a toothy smile. 'We have that in common, then! Well, the killing game part. Not the survivor part,' she specified, looking down at her drink. 

Hinata's drink almost came out of his nose. He started coughing, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. 'What?' he blurted out, punching himself in the chest. 'If you're not a survivor, then that means you...?' This must have been a dream, but a part of him didn't want to wake up just yet.

'Died? Yeah, you could say so,' she said, loud and clear. The light left her eyes, just for a moment, only to return as she gave him a faint, almost bitter smile. 'Don't think too hard about it!' she advised cheerfully. He could have sworn that she winked at him, too.

Hinata was starting to get angry. 'How am I supposed to not think about it?!' he asked, his voice cracking embarrassingly. 'If you're dead, then...!' 

'Jeez, I told you not to think too hard about that!' she complained, leaning forward with an irritated expression. If he wasn't so upset, he'd probably find it somewhat endearing. 'Don't do that!'

A sudden realisation hit him. Cold sweat formed on his forehead as he shuddered slightly. 'How did you even die...?' he asked slowly. There must have been a reason why she didn't want to talk about it. Was it just to prevent him from realising it's a dream and waking up? Or was she an actual ghost? God, he really did not want to be overthinking it... 'Or is this a prank or something? It's not funny!'

Her face went pale. She cleared her throat to regain composure. 'It's not a joke, I'm serious! Why would I joke about that? Besides, don't change the topic!' she said defensively. 'We were talking about you and your killing game, right? Let's get back to that.'

Hinata knitted his eyebrows. Now he was sure that she was deflecting. 'How am I changing the topic? You're the one who brought it up. Was I supposed not to react?'

Akamatsu blinked. And then she began giggling. 'You're right,' she admitted. 'It's just that you're the one who seems to need to vent more, so I want to hear you out first. I'll talk about myself afterwards, okay? I don't have anything to hide. Not anymore.'

'Promise?' Hinata insisted, raising one eyebrow. He couldn't be mad at her.

'Promise, promise!' she assured, nodding her head. 'Did I really come across as suspicious, or something?' she asked, scrunching up her freckled nose.

'Yeah, kind of,' Hinata admitted flatly. It wasn't even about her, really. She seemed trustworthy enough. In a way, what he doubted were his own senses. 'But...I guess I can talk about it. It's too painful to talk about it with the other survivors. It's all too fresh in our minda,' he explained, finishing the drink. She immediately gave him another. He accepted automatically.

'How many of you survived?' she asked cautiously, looking him directly in the eyes.

'Five people, including me. Every one of us lost someone important in the game, so we're still mourning. They're all pretty good people.' Hinata couldn't help but feel like he wasn't doing a good job at explaining any of that. His wording was clumsy and boring, and yet she was listening carefully, nodding her head occassionally.

'I see, I see,' she said. 'You worked together and got out of there, right?' Her eyes were shining.

'Uh, yeah. I guess so. We weren't always good at working as a group, but we pulled through.' He hummed, tapping his fingernail on the glass. 'At first,' he continued, 'we had a self-proclaimed leader. He bossed us around a lot, but he meant well, I'm sure. He was doing his best to prevent deaths and keep everybody safe.'

'What happened to him?' Akamatsu, who had been holding her breath, asked in a low whisper, wrapping her fingers tightly around her martini glass. Her voice was heavy with emotion.

'He...was the first person to die,' Hinata informed, studying her face.

A barely noticeable gasp. A twinge of pain twisted her face. 'What...happened afterwards?'

'There was an investigation. Apparently, he died on accident, instead of the culprit's actual target. And the target...provoked the culprit in the first place.' Hinata frowned. His hands shook.

'Please, tell me about that person. The target,' Akamatsu begged, grabbing his hands. She was warm. Too warm to be an illusion or a ghost...

Hinata sighed deeply. 'He was a weird person. Even now, I don't know how I feel about him. I was scared of him. I didn't understand him. But I wanted to, so...I kept talking to him. I don't think that helped me understand in the end,' he said with a bitter smile. 'He died. He planned his own death. I'm still not sure why, but I think he wanted me to solve it.'

'You miss him.' That wasn't a question. It was a statement of fact.

'More than anybody,' Hinata confirmed. 'Mainly because now I will never understand him. He left me with an unsolvable mystery. Damn you, Komaeda,' he whispered the last sentence.

'Sounds like a handful,' Akamatsu remarked with a knowing smile.

Hinata glanced at her. 'He's the reason why things got so weird. Two guys tied him up for a while. Nobody really wanted to cooperate with him, myself included.'

'But you did. You said that you talked to him a lot, right?' Akamatsuu teased.

'That's because I was scared! I wanted to know what was going on in his head.'

Akamatsu smirked. 'Sure. And he's still on your mind. Is that why you're so gloomy?'

Hinata groaned. 'No!' he protested. And then paused. And then he said: '...Maybe. But not just that.'

'Tell me all about it, please,' Akamatsu encouraged, patting his knee supportively. It would be impossible to say no to her. He had a distinct feeling that she'd push until he continued.

'You were in a killing game too, so you would know, right?' he said vaguely, running his fingers through his hair. 'What was your first thought when you found out you're in a killing game?'

'First thought?' She hummed, tapping her chin. 'That we have to get out of there at all costs.'

'That's more productive than mine,' he remarked with a self-deprecating chuckle. 'I think my first thought was that anybody is capable of murder. Even me.' He looked down at his hands. 'I didn't kill anyone. But the game made me think about whether I could. It's over but I'm still thinking about that.' His hands clenched into fists. 'Some of my memories are missing and I know I did bad things, but I can't...I can't remember them. I guess that got heavy,' he said sheepishly.

Akamatsu, who had been listening without looking at him, spoke up after a few seconds of silence. 'Is that just me, or did you finally get everything off your chest?' she said, playing with her hair. 'Your secret was that you contemplated murder and did bad things you don't remember. I think that's fine.' She glanced at him. 'I killed someone in the game.'

'...Huh?' Cold sweat. Shaking hands. It wasn't that he didn't consider that possibility, but now that he knew his suspicion was true, he had a hard time believing it.

'I was the first murderer. I was executed in the first trial,' she said calmly, but her hands were shaking. 'I guess,' she continued, forcing a smile, 'that I took it one step forward. I didn't just think about it. I proved that I'm capable of it. Maybe I am kind of scary.'

'No, not at all,' Hinata assured, though he did not sound convinced. 'I can't really judge you, since I thought about it myself, but...'

'But you want to know why I did it,' Akamatsu said firmly, and started telling the story immediately. 'I was a similar kind of person to the first victim of your game. I decided to take the lead. I hoped to help everybody escape. I really believed we could do it if we worked together! I still believe it!'

Hinata nodded along. He could easily imagine her in that role.

'I made a friend. He was a detective, and we tried to catch the mastermind together. But...I formulated a murder plan without telling him.' She took a sip of her drink. 'I didn't want to hurt anyone. I just wanted us to be able to leave, and the only way I could think of was...that... Nothing else worked. So I decided to resort to murdering the mastermind.'

'Oh.' Hinata raised his eyebrows. 'I guess that would end the killing game.'

'In theory,' Akamatsu said bitterly. 'Maybe. It made sense to me at the time. I will never find out if it would have worked, because I killed the wrong person...' Tears rolled down her cheeks.

'That's always a risk,' Hinata muttered. He wasn't sure how to respond. 'You wanted to help, so I can't really judge you. At least you tried to kill the mastermind, and not just any person...'

'And I failed to do that.' She shook her head. 'I don't want you to tell me I didn't do a bad thing. It was a stupid plan, and murder isn't justified, ever!' She slammed her fist against her own thigh. 'And then I got executed. I have no idea if the others worked together without me. I hope they did. In my stead.' She wiped her face. 'Sorry about that.'

'No...' Hinata shook his head. 'I'm sure they did fine.'

'That's...why I asked what happened to you after your leader's death, and how many of you made it out. It was...the closest I had to finding out what happened to my friends...' She bit her bottom lip.

'I get it,' he said. He was worried. It seemed like she had gone through hell he couldn't even imagine. 'I think they'll be fine. They'll honour your legacy, right?'

'They promised to do that,' she admitted, sniffling. 'I wish I could have stayed with them. There must have been another way'

'You tried. We all make bad choices, even without killing games... Let's try to come to terms with that, I guess. I changed my whole identity in the past. I became a monster because I wasn't happy with myself. But...I'm Hinata Hajime. I found myself again. Maybe you need to do something like that too.' He smiled shyly. 'You can talk to me. So maybe you can find your friends too.'

Akamatsu nodded and rested her cheek against his shoulder. 'I think this is what I needed. I can face my friends now that I talked to someone who didn't know me at all.'

'And I can face my friends and properly continue my life now,' he murmured.

'Maybe not now. Let's stay here just for a bit.'

**Author's Note:**

> This might be the weirdest thing I ever wrote


End file.
